The Story Behind The Name
I’ve always loved climbing trees.
The rolling hills of my youth were dotted with towering California Oaks, each a fortress waiting to be explored.
And oh, did I climb them.
No tree on the property escaped my scampering hands and feet.
I even spent my summers sleeping in a treehouse my dad and I built reading books, escaping from mosquitos, and listening to the crickets and frogs roar back and forth in competition.
Trees were always a safe haven.
Every once in a while, a bad storm brought a different type of thrill.
A great oak would fall.
The mischievous joy I would experience in seeing a toppled giant blocking the cars in the driveway — making it impossible to go to school — cannot be accurately expressed.
And there I was again, climbing in the tree, exploring things from a new perspective.
In the aftermath of these storms, there was the inevitable cleanup, which would reveal a different type of wonder.
Cutting the trees into sections would expose the heart of each oak — its rings.
Each ring, a story.
Marks of a years passed with tales of growth, resilience, and survival through periods of drought and adversity.
Something about seeing those rings always struck a chord deep within me.
They weren’t just fingerprints of years passed; they were symbols of life’s journey, mirroring my own path.
Each ring representing the seasons we all navigate — times of significant growth and others of still introspection.
The wins.
The losses.
The expansions.
The contractions.
I felt understood.
There was something else out there that knew what I was going through.
“There’s A Ring To This” is born from these reflections.
A tribute to self-discovery.
Stories of courage, resilience and transformation.
It’s an honest and real look at what it means to unfold as a human being on the journey to becoming everything you know you can be.
Facing fear.
Battling dragons.
Finding courage.
Loving deeply.
Dreaming.
Unfolding.
Being.
And so much more.
My greatest hope is that in these stories, you find something within you that calls the wisest and most true version of you forward.
A voice that beckons you to become more.
Because you can be so much more.
And that’s the greatest gift of all.
Evan Sanders